External hard drive doesn't work on other macs.

So I've got this external hard drive (WD Elements) and basically have only used it for my macbook pro. Today I tried it with an imac, and it didn't work. The computer recognized it, but it wouldn't let me move any files onto the hard drive. There was no error message or anything; it just didn't work and made that ping sound. You know the one you get when you clicked somewhere you weren't supposed to? That sound.
I thought maybe it was a formatting thing, because the disk utility verification said it's "formatted for use in Windows 7," but then how is it working on my macbook?
Anyway, I feel like there's a really obvious solution for this, but I can't seem to figure it out, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

It sounds like your hard drive is formatted NTFS, Mac's can read those type of drives, but unable to write to them without special software.
Take a look at this link, http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/02/enable-write-for-ntfs-hard-drives-on.html

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External hard drive doesn't work on any other machine but my Mac since I connected it to the Mac

My external hard drive used to work on any machine. I watched movies on my tv, putted the movies on the hard drive using my pc. Since I connected it to my new MacBook Air, it doesn't connect to anything else anymore! I hope it's something in settings witch I accedentely clicked on (something with privacy so it can only connect to my Mac or something like that). Does anyone know how this happend/how to fix it?
PS. Maybe its important, I use it for Time Machine as well. Before I used that, it deleted my whole hard drive whitch really ****** me off. Now I got new stuff on it. Maybe my Mac is just claiming it to keep the hard disk for itself?

One can't read the other.
Just to be clear Mac's can read/write FAT32 but windows cannot use OS X Extended. So to use a drive on both systems it needs to be formatted FAT32
FAT32 does have limitations and possibly the best solution is to use NTFS, a more modern, robust filesystem. The drawback here is that OS X does not natively read NTFS so a third party kernel extension is needed.

Since I upgraded to Mavericks, my Maxtor external hard drive doesn't work. What gives ?

Since I upgraded to Mavericks, my Maxtor external
Hard drive does not work. It is FireWire to
Thunderbolt . When I connect it it crashes. What
Gives ?j

Maxtor, must be an old one.
There is a disconnect occurrence in some cases with FIREWIRE ext. HD and Mavericks.
(indications mentioned on the Mavericks board)
This is known and being looked into.
Ive looked into this much myself.
Suggest using another Mac and offloading data onto a USB3 and using same until there is resolution.
Any normal USB ext. HD is working fine.
Peace

External Hard Drive doesn't work after Time Machine cancelation

First post on the forum.
So far i've had 2 hard drives broken because of a simple Time Machine.
I own a MBP and an HP so my hard drives usually have 2 partitions, one for mac, the other for pc. About a month or so i was doing a Time Machine on my Iomega 1TB (the partition used for the time machine is formatted in Mac Os Expanded (with journaling)), and, because the time machine was extremely slow i stopped it. Then came the problems. I tried to connect the Iomega to the mac, but the partition in which i had the time machine doesn't mount. the other partition is mountable and i even managed to delete some files in it, so it worked. But now the partitions don't mount. I can still see the two partitions in Disk Utility, with the correct names i gave them, but cannot mount.
Right now i don't have the disk with me because i went to a "professional" to try and at least recover my files. What a joke that was. First they told me they had my recovered files and them the files were not mine. The switched the disks and gave me someone elses files. And now they ask me for 1100$ to recover my files because it is a hardware malfunction. Obviously i dont have that amount of money available and i cannot afford the recovery atm, and i do not believe that a software can cause hardware to fail. (just guessing)
Resume: 1 external hard drive, with 2 partitions, one mac os expanded and the other is a Windows NT Filesystem. None of the partitions are corrently mounting on mac but the disk utility recognizes the partitions and the names i gave them.
So guys can u help a poor little girl that needs her photographies so that she can go and show her portfolio to get a job. :/
Kinda desperate at this point.
ps: sorry for bad english, second language

One can't read the other.
Just to be clear Mac's can read/write FAT32 but windows cannot use OS X Extended. So to use a drive on both systems it needs to be formatted FAT32
FAT32 does have limitations and possibly the best solution is to use NTFS, a more modern, robust filesystem. The drawback here is that OS X does not natively read NTFS so a third party kernel extension is needed.

External hard drive doesn't work on iMac, does work on PC

Hi everyone.
I have an external hard drive which is formatted with ExFat. I recently put all my stuff on it as my MacBook Pro was sent to repair. So it obviously works with OSX. I also put stuff from my PC, and have tested it several times. Compatibale with both! I then left it alone for a while and tried connecting it to my iMac. It doesn't read it, not in desktop, not in Finder. I went to Disk Utility and there it is, but unable to mount. I tried verifying it and it said it needed to repair. I repaired, but it quit the repair and said that I needed to format the hard drive. I tried connecting it to my PC and it works like a charm. I can't, for the life of me, figure out why my PC can read it, but my iMac cannot, since I've used it with both just two weeks ago. I tried several USB ports, no luck. I tried pretty much everything, and since I have everything on it I'm in despair, as I have absolutely no free space on my PC, so I can't transfer my data to that, and I'm fearful that the external drive will collapse any minute now. ANY suggestions?
P.S. I recently updated my OSX, still no luck. And I might want to add that the ExFat is a partition, the only partition on my external, taking up all 1 TB. But again, I used it just as it is two weeks ago without any issues.
Magnus

I currently only have the one cable. But somehow, while I typed the original post, the hard drive popped up, so as of now the problem's been solved. I have no idea how, whatsoever.
<Edited by Host>

External hard drive doesn't work anymore... Why?

Hi, I have been using a WD Elements I tb external hard drive on my MBP and it worked fine for a year and a half. However, my son played with it until I caught him and now, when I plug it in my computer, the MBP doesn't recognize the HD. The HD works fine (lights are on and I hear a spinning sound, and feel it work) but it doesn't appear in my Finder. I can, however, repair it in Disk Utilities and I am deleting its contents right now. Anything else I should do. I really don't want to buy another one.
I am using Mountain Lion (until Mavericks comes ) 10.8.4, 2 GHz Intel Core i&, 4 gig 1333 MHz, DDR3.
Any help would be welcomed

oilgong wrote:
I can't afford to lose ANY of my files on my external hard drive and desperately needs a solution
It sounds like the drive may be failing. Do not attempt to do anything more with it .
If there is any chance of recovery at all your best bet is Prosoft Data Rescue II . There is a free trial to see if it can recover what you need. But don't do another process on that drive until you've downloaded and run it.
-mj

External Hard Drive doesn't work

I have a the blackbook and a 200GB Cintre ZDisc External Hard Drive. When I connect the EHD to my Macbook, I can view all the files on it, but when I try opening or copying one to my computer (they're mostly videos and mp3's), the program will open and the spinning rainbow wheel comes up, but the file won't play and the program freezes.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Black Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Is your external formated using NTFS, if that is, then that could be the problem.
Try to get info on your external. Or if it is connect to your pc now, go to my computer, right click and select properties, and see what kind of format that EHD has.
NTFS is a read only for Mac OS X and if you want to swap data you must re-format it using fat-32.
Be advised Fat 32 is not support file bigger than 4 Gb, so you might encounter problem when saving or moving file that bigger than the 4 Gb limit.
Good Luck

Password to unlock my external hard drive doesn't work

I have a G-drive slim external hard drive and all of the sudden it won't accept my password to unlock it. Is there a way to reset it?

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Migrating via external hard drive doesn't work

I'm migrating from a Powerbook G4 to an iMac G5. For iTunes, I copied all data onto an external hard drive and connected that to the new iMac. But I can neither import the files via the "add to library"* command in iTunes nor can I simply copy the files onto the hard drive of the new iMac. The error message is always the same: "The attempt to copy onto the volume "Macintosh HD" failed. This medium is neither readable nor writable."* Needless to say, that I don't have any problems with the hard drive except for this one. Why is that so?
*This is the translation of the German command/message - the English version actually might be slightly different.

Maverick,
Assuming that you're using the standard paths on your PB G4:
Just go to your user directory / Music: Copy the complete "iTunes" folder with all its content & all subfolder to your external disk.
On your G5 also go to your user directory / Music: Now replace the "iTunes" folder with the copy on your ext. disk.
Using this procedure all your playlists/playcounts ... will be migrated as well.
Wenn's komplizierter werden sollte, schick mir einfach eine private Mail an: [email protected]

My external hard drive is not working on my mac.

I have tried all options available such as going on finder and making my hard drives visible and disk utilities

Basically my external hard drive would not eject so i force quit it and the hard drive does not come up at all anywhere on my mac pro OS X version 10.9.4 and it isn't visible in disk utilities no and it doesn't say format either and i have tried it on a windows computer it does not show on their either. the format is Fatdos i think so i can use it on windows and mac and i cant see anything in system reports and yes it is connect by a USB. also it isn't making any noises either

WD 320gb external hard drive doesn't show up on mac

I just bought a 320gb Western Digital external hard drive. When I plug it into my mac (OS X 10.4.11), nothing shows up on the desktop. I also don't see it anywhere on "Finder". When I plug it into my family's PC it works correctly and I can find the hard drive and put files on it. Any suggestions for being able to access the hard drive from my mac?
Thanks.

Prep the drive for the Mac:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

External hard drive doesn't show up on Mac Mini

Working with pre-installed Snow Leopard on a Mac Mini.
External firewire hard drive does not show up on desktop or in sidebar. Also tried the same hard drive connected with USB. Tried another USB drive -- nothing.
What can I try?

If those have a pre-existing format that works with those earlier machines, they may not show as bootable drives....they need to be set up with a GUID map as mentioned. But they should still show up in Disk Utility at least...
If they worked on those other computers, then you should try the Apple article listed above to see if all that is needed is to get the FW ports to cooperate.
If no joy there, try resetting some of the basic hardware involved (PRAM~NVRAM). See this Apple KB for details, etc.:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
If still no joy, walk it in to the nearest Apple Store for a quick hands on.
Good luck in any case.

My Seagate Expansion 500GB external hard drive no longer works with my Mac

Hi
i have had a seagate expansion hard drive for the last year ish and it has worked as a time machine without any problem. when i first got it i had to format it to windows but that was simple and worked well. recently i unplugged it for a few weeks and have recently plugged it back in. now it won't register as my timemachine or show in finder.
I went into disk utilities and clicked 'repair' then click 'verify and these are the two errors i recieved.
Verify and Repair volume “Jon & Sarah Time Machine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid index key
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
The volume Jon & Sarah Time Machine could not be repaired.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Verifying volume “Jon & Sarah Time Machine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid index key
The volume Jon & Sarah Time Machine needs to be repaired.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
I am hoping that someone has had the same issue and is able to help me with this problem.
all my back ups are on the hard drive so i really don't want to have to format it as i don't know what i will lose.
I have checked for updates for my Mac and it says there are none.
cheers
Jon

You need something stronger, such as DiskWarrior, to repair the HD.

External Hard Drive doesn't work on one usb, but works on the other, help?!

Hi there,
I have a very strange issue here. When connecting my external portable Maxtor 60GB disc to my MBP, I usually use the usb port on the right side of my laptop. However tonight, I connected it to the left usb port and noticed a horrible clicking sound coming from the otherwise silent drive. It made repeated clicking/scratching sounds and wouldn't mount and crashed OS X. Then I connected it to the right hand USB port and it mounted and worked like nothing else happened.
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It's a power issue, use a 2-1 USB cord, a powered hub or an external power supply.

How do i get itunes to display my library (which is on an external hard drive)? It worked OK on old PC, but not new my new laptop. They are M4A files. are

My itunes library used to be on a PC - but shortly before the PC went to PC heaven I transferred the library onto an external hard drive. It worked fine. Now I have a laptop - but I can't get itunes to pick up the library location. I have changed in advance preferences, but the library does not display. I have tried holding down shift when starting itunes - but when I do that it looks for *.itl files, and all my files are M4A files. What do I do next?

chevalierdurufle wrote:
My itunes library used to be on a PC - but shortly before the PC went to PC heaven I transferred the library onto an external hard drive
You mean you transferred the media, not the library...
Now I have a laptop - but I can't get itunes to pick up the library location
The library location is in your /Music/ oflder.
Your media files (not yet in your new iTunes library ) is on the external drive.
I have changed in advance preferences, but the library does not display.
Because you have not yet added anything to your library.
Quit iTunes.
On the external, create a new folder named My iTunes library (or something).
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select My iTunes library on the external.
Go into Windows Explorer and move all the media files on the external into /My iTunes Llibrary/iTunes media/Automatically add to iTunes/ folder.

External hard drive doesn't work on other macs.

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